I’ve had the privilege to work with and study hundreds of technology companies and their sales organizations. Based upon my experience, here’s my list of some of the best technologies to sell in 2015. While it includes companies that range from startupsto billions in sales, all of these businesses provide fantastic technology-based solutions that dovetail to key trends taking place in the market.

Proofpoint– The movie “The Interview” proved that one data breach can shut down an entire company and the application-specific security market is red hot!One of the main sources of security threats is email, and Proofpoint offers the most comprehensive inbound and outbound email security available.

CipherCloud– CipherCloud is a unique application-specific security provider that protects sensitive information that is sent to the cloud. CipherCloud technologies protect popular cloud applications out of the box such as Salesforce, Force.com, Chatter, Box, Google Gmail, Microsoft Office 365 and Amazon Web Services.

Velocify– Velocify is an innovative provider of cloud-based intelligent sales technology, designed for high-velocity, rapid-response sales environments. In my humble opinion, their website is one of the best and provides a great example of how to use relevant content to engage visitors.

Google Business Apps– The migration of businesses moving from on-premises applications to the cloud has crossed the chasm and is now well into the mainstream market. Over five million businesses have implemented Google’s business apps (professional email, online storage, shared calendars, video meetings and productivity tools).

OpenGov– OpenGov cloud technology enables governments to share financial data with elected officials and the public to improve communication and build trust. I predict Glasnost (increased openness and transparency in government institutions) will become a de-facto technology requirement for every state and local government agency. OpenGov is first-mover in this space.

Calabrio– Calabrio’s technology “humanizes” the traditional contact center. Calabrio frees the “voice of the customer” in today’s multi-channel contact center for better, faster decision making at all levels of the organization.

Coupons.com–Over one billion coupons will be activated on Coupons.com in 2015, but that’s only part of the story.Coupons.com is actually a big data company that provides critical marketing information to over 700 consumer packaged goods companies and their online shopper platform enables retailers to drive consumer loyalty.

Mitel– I cannot recall a company that has so successfully repositioned its brand and refreshed its portfolio of technologies as Mitel has.Here’s the proof … $10,000 of Mitel stock purchased 24 months ago is worth over $32,000 today.

GTNexus– GT Nexus’ game-changing technology optimizes supply chain transformation to the cloud.Tens of thousands of companies use GT Nexus to optimize the global flow of goods, funds and trade information from advanced materials planning to the point of order and all the way to final payment.

Verimatrix– Chances are you’re using Verimatrix’s technology and don’t even know it. Cable and satellite TV providers around the globe use Verimatrix to deliver and secure video delivery, IPTV and Internet TV.

What separates high-performing sales organizations from average and underperforming sales organizations? In order to answer this question, I recently conducted an extensive 42-part survey with 786 sales professionals. Participants were asked to share their opinions on their sales organization and personal details about their own quota performance.

The study results reveal there are 15 significant differences between how high-performing, average, and underperforming sales organizations perceive themselves, measure performance, staff their organizations, and operate. This Harvard Business Review article highlights five of these key attributes and performance-related metrics that illustrate these differences and the gap between optimum and sub-par sales organization performance.

The team at RingDNA just released their list of the top seven B2B sales books you should read in 2015. I am very excited that my new book Heavy Hitter I.T. Sales Strategy: Competitive Insights from Interviews with 1,000+ Key Information Technology Decision Makers and Top Technology Salespeople was at the top of their list. Here’s their comments about the book from their INSIDE SALES BLOG ….

"If you want to learn how top salespeople sell software, this book is the place to start. Heavy Hitter IT Sales Strategy is one of the most well-researched books on sales we’ve ever come across. It covers a lot of ground including how technology decision makers evaluate deals and arrive at decisions, how to implement a winning sales process and how to use social media effectively in sales. Each chapter is packed with useful takeaways and, for good measure, the entire book is full of interesting quotes from over 1,000 top technology salespeople. If you’re selling software, whether it be on-premise solutions or SaaS, this book is a must-read."

One of the toughest tasks in all of sales is to penetrate new accounts. Take a moment to put yourself in the position of the I.T. executive you are trying to contact. You are incredibly busy fulfilling your daily job duties and have a long list of to-dos to be completed. Given your frame of mind, it’s easy to understand why you wouldn’t respond to a sales pitch from some unknown salesperson.

Under these circumstances, the salesperson’s job is to connect with the busy executive and earn the right to a meeting. How do win over a complete stranger who has no interest in hearing from you? The answer to this question is that it requires a concerted account penetration campaign that is conducted within a compelling language-based framework.

In this webinar, Steve will review advanced email messaging strategies based upon “sales linguistics.” Sales linguistics is the new field of study about how customers and salespeople use and interpret language during the decision making process. These communication strategies that will enable your message to rise above your competition’s. They provide impactful psychological suggestions that compel customers' rational intellect and emotional subconscious to take action and meet with you.

HEAVY HITTER I.T. SALES STRATEGY

Heavy Hitter I.T. Sales Strategy is a comprehensive guide for penetrating new accounts, differentiating your solution during the sales cycle, and winning highly competitive accounts. It is based on extensive research and interviews with more than 1,000 key information technology decision makers, top technology salespeople, and vice presidents of sales. The book provides state of the art technology sales strategies and advanced tactics for senior salespeople who want to learn the secrets of top performers.

Readers will find advice on how to win over C-level I.T. executives and senior business leaders across the organization. Discover how I.T. organizational structure impacts company decision making. Determine how to gain strategic account control based upon the people, process, and politics of selling to complex businesses. Learn to conduct persuasive sales calls using sales linguistics, the study of how the customer's mind uses and interprets language. Learn More

When I was a vice president of sales, one of my key responsibilities was to ensure that our annual sales kickoff meeting was a complete success. I wanted everyone to leave the meeting trained on our new products, well-versed about the competition, and most importantly, re-energized to get back into the field to sell. Today, I have keynoted and conducted sales training breakout sessions at hundreds of sales meetings and annual sales kickoffs. Based upon my experiences, here's some information to help you plan the perfect sales kickoff:

How to Select a Sales Meeting ThemeFavorite Annual Sales Kickoff Meeting ThemesWhat Salespeople Want From Sales MeetingsFive Annual Sales Meeting Ideas for the Best ConferenceSample Sales Kickoff Agenda: The Most Important Meeting of the Year!Virtual Sales Meeting StrategyHow to Ruin a National Sales Meeting2015 Sales Meeting Theme Graphics

For many companies the only time during the entire year when the worldwide sales team gets together is the annual sales kickoff meeting. Obviously, everyone wants this meeting to be a success. As a keynote speaker who has had the privilege of presenting at hundreds of annual sales meetings, I thought I would share some of the ways companies sabotage their sales meeting.

Wrong Length. German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus discovered people forget facts at a predictable rate and that greatest learning actually occurs by studying less. His famous “Forgetting Curve” (see figure above) shows that your meeting attendees will already have forgotten 80% of what they learned just two days before. You should keep this in mind when you are deciding on holding a three, four, or five day sales meeting.

Wrong Agenda. You’re making a mistake if every session at your meeting is a “deep-dive” about product specifications, features, and functionality. Ideally, your agenda should include at least six different types of sessions:

1. State of the Union presentations about the company and sales, marketing, R&D, customer support and other pertinent areas of the company.

2. Product-related sessions from the prospective customer’s point of view. Ideally, customers share their stories about their experiences and success.

Wrong Communication. Too many sales kickoffs are death by PowerPoint where presenter after presenter lectures the sales organization. These meetings don’t involve their salespeople in any aspect of the group presentations. Key salespeople should be asked to present summary overviews of their most important wins. Whenever I keynote a meeting, I will also moderate a panel that I call “Tales From the Field” where top salespeople are interviewed about their major wins and losses.

Wrong Location. There are three critical factors in determining location. First, how many airplane connections will it take for the majority of the salespeople to reach the meeting? Never select a location that requires three or more flights for non-international-based attendees. Second, stay away from “hazardous” weather locations during January through March (like the northeast or cities like Chicago).Finally, how much time, effort, and cost will take to get all your corporate presenters (and their demonstration equipment) to the meeting? This will help you determine if you should hold the meeting near corporate headquarters.

Wrong Meeting Facility. Consider the following when selecting the hotel and meeting facility. How far is it from the airport? This forgotten factor is important because no one likes the hassle of flying all day only to have to shuttle for another hour or two to a hotel. The hotel meeting facility you choose also sends a message to the sales team. Is the company trying to send a message of austerity based upon the economic climate or do you want them to feel appreciated for all their hard work? Whatever your situation is, make sure the hotel mirrors the main messages being delivered by the senior leaders presenting at the meeting.

Wrong Acknowledgement. No one has ever been fired for saying too many compliments or handing out too much recognition at a sales conference. Awards are extremely important because salespeople enjoy the acclaim and the public identification as a role model with their peers. Therefore, compliments to individual salespeople should be given out continuously throughout the sales kickoff and awards should always be done in full view of the entire organization.

Attention B2B Sales Managers and Salespeople!

I am conducting a Business to Business sales performance trend study. This study will address some of the hard hitting questions I get asked time and time again by sales leaders. If you are a B2B Salesperson or Sales Manager, I would be very interested in your thoughts and hope you will consider completing a brief five minute survey.

In appreciation for your time, you will receive a copy of the completed study and be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $500 AMEX gift card. Additionally, the first 25 respondents will get their choice of a signed copy of one of my latest books:

This is a “blind” study where your name and organization will be kept confidential and not be included in the research findings.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and please tell your B2B sales colleagues who would benefit from this valuable study.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN TAKING THE SURVEY. OVER 1,000 SALES LEADERS AND SALESPEOPLE PARTICIPATED AND THE SURVEY IS NOW CLOSED. PLEASE VISIT WWW.STEVEWMARTIN.COM FOR RESEARCH AND RESULTS FROM PAST SURVEYS.

For the past two decades, business to business selling has been conducted in basically the same way. Salespeople directly approach customers armed with facts, features, and the benefits of their products to convince customers to buy. However, customer decision making has changed and today’s buyers are smarter and more sophisticated than ever. In addition, your competitors have not sat idly by. They’re focused on defeating you so they have educated themselves about your products and sales tactics. Sales success in today’s times requires a new way of thinking about sales strategy. The question is, what is the right strategy for today?

In his classic book Strategy, famous military historian Lidell Hart detailed the “indirect” approach to war. In painstaking detail he described the superiority of the indirect strategy over the direct strategy, using examples throughout the history of warfare. He theorized that the outcome of every major war from Roman times through World War II could be attributed to the grand strategy the parties selected. Instead of a brute force direct attack to overwhelm the enemy, the victors always chose to battle indirectly. When forced to fight, the indirect strategy involves using surprise, intelligence, logic, and human nature to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses.

Hart argued that the indirect approach was not solely a war strategy but also an influential philosophy that could be applied wherever opposition to new ways of thinking exists. He said, “The direct assault of ideas provokes a stubborn resistance, thus intensifying the difficulty of producing a change of outlook.” For example, “The suggestion that there is a bargain to be secured is far more potent than any direct appeal to buy.” Below, you will find seven principles of the indirect strategy and their business to business sales application.

1. Employ Psychology. The first and foremost principle is that the indirect strategy is a psychological operation (“psy-op” in military jargon) based upon understanding, predicting, and influencing human nature. In sales, winning requires earning the trust, respect, and friendship of another human being. The victor builds the strongest customer relationship while inflicting mental and emotional trauma on his enemies. The secondary psychological goal is to elevate the enemy’s combat fatigue and skepticism about winning because a halfhearted warrior is more than halfway to losing.

2. Plan Your Strategy. During a long sales cycle of several months or more, it’s easy to focus on individual battles and lose sight of winning the war. The sales cycle is reduced to a series of battles without an overriding grand strategy. Salespeople become fixated on the next customer interaction, proceeding from the initial sales call to the sales presentation, then on to the product demonstration and evaluation. However, all salespeople are like generals who should create a strategy to win their wars long before the first battle begins. The successful military leader preplans how and where he will attack in accordance with the resources at his disposal. The victorious commander achieves his objective through calculated maneuvers to gain the advantage and counter tactics to neutralize his enemy’s advantages.

3. Know Your Enemies. How well do you know your competitors? How much time do you spend studying their Web sites, products, and marketing collateral? Do you take the time to perform an honest win-loss analysis after each engagement? Most salespeople argue that they simply don’t have enough time for these types of activities. However, history repeats itself for those who don’t learn from the past.

4. Be the First on the Battlefield. As a rule, it is always best to be the first salesperson in an account. The chance to understand a customer’s environment first, establish relationships, and set the criteria for the selection process are obvious advantages. But if you work for an underdog company that competes against industry favorites, being the first on the battlefield is the difference between success and failure.

5. Spies Provide Privileged Information. Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote about the indirect strategy when he said, “Knowledge of the enemy’s position can only be obtained from other men. Hence, the use of spies.” These words are still true today. In order to win any complex sale you need proprietary information that only a spy can provide. These spies are members of the selection team, other company employees, or business partners. They provide valuable information about the internal machinations of the selection process and inform you about the thoughts of the various selection team members. Without a spy, you never know how well you are positioned in an account or what the enemy’s next move will be.

6. Understand How the Objective is Organized. All battlefield commanders need location-based information so they can map the way to reach their objective. Similarly, salespeople need a complete understanding of how the evaluators are organized within their company because political power during the decision-making process goes far beyond the lines and titles on an organization chart.

If you are involved in selling an enterprise solution, you already know the importance of understanding the inner workings of the various departments within a company. Your product might be purchased by the information technology department and used by accounting and manufacturing. Therefore, it’s critical to map out the political interrelationships between evaluators and their respective departments of the organization.

7. Create Turning Points. The indirect strategy is based upon creating turning points which cause enemies to lose momentum they can never regain. Like war, every deal has a critical moment, or turning point, that determines the winner and the loser. In sales, information can be used to create turning points that eliminates competitors. Your expertise on the customer’s industry, understanding of best practices, knowledge of unflattering facts about your archrival, and the willingness to raise critical issues the customer is unaware of can be used to create turning points.

For the sales warriors of the business world today, the difference between being hailed as a hero or branded a failure hinges on winning. But in order to win, you must know the steps it takes to develop a winning strategy. Winning is everything in sales as it is in war. In the words of indirect strategy practitioner Napoleon Bonaparte, “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”

Sales is a profession based upon pressure: pressure from sales management to make the numbers, pressure from competitors who are trying to defeat you, pressure you place yourself to be number one, and the pressure to perform on every sales call.

Pressure upon the salesperson during sales calls has a profound impact. It creates an emergency situation that triggers our body’s “fight or flight” system. Here are a few of the physiological changes that happen to a salesperson who is making a stressful customer sales call or conducting a critical presentation he hopes will land him the big deal.

The eyebrows instinctively rise and the eyes widen. The iris eye muscle contracts, causing the pupils to dilate. These actions enhance vision so that maximum visual information about the perceived threats can be sent to the brain.

The brain’s cortex interprets the visual information it is receiving and transmits messages to the brain’s hypothalamus. The hypothalamus activates the adrenal gland, which instantaneously releases adrenaline into the blood stream. The hormone adrenaline activates the body’s emergency response systems.

The heart pumps at up to twice its normal rate. Breathing increases so that the lungs can supply more oxygen to the blood. Oxygen-rich blood is sent to the brain for clearer thinking and to muscles for quick reactions. The stomach stops digestion so that blood can be diverted elsewhere in the body. The liver releases sugar reserves for a quick boost of energy, and the bladder sends a message that it wants to be emptied so the body can flee faster.

On the outside of the body, perspiration gathers as sweat glands are activated to reduce the body heat caused by the increased flow of blood. The mouth widens so that air can be taken in faster than through the nose. The face loses color and appears ashen as blood is diverted for more important uses.

The increase in bodily activity corresponds to the escalation of mental activity as well. The salesperson’s internal dialogue speeds up, jumps from subject to subject, and second-guesses itself. “Are they with me?” “What should I say next?” This tension and fear are exposed in the salespeople’s speech. They talk too fast, repeat themselves, stutter, or under extreme stress completely forget what they were going to say.

The reality of this situation is that the salesperson must project a calm, cool, collected presence to the customer at all times. To do otherwise would increase the customer’s stress level. Nervousness and agitation may be misinterpreted and convince customers that the salesperson has something to hide. Verbal faux pas may be thought of as incompetence. Think about your last visit to your dentist. What would your reaction have been if before he started to work on your mouth he seemed nervous, agitated, or flustered? You would be scared and have a very stressful appointment.

One of the most important questions to ask yourself before you start working on a deal is, who’s zone is it in: yours or your competitors’, or is the business up for grabs?

Basically, every deal is in one of three zones: your zone, a competitor’s zone, or open business that is up for grabs. Typically, fifteen percent or so of business is in your zone, meaning it’s yours to lose. Most likely, your competitor’s zone is similar in size to yours. However, you cannot win there, so you shouldn’t even try. The remaining deals, representing the lion’s share of business, should be hotly contested because there is a path for you to win them. All you have to do is figure it out before your competition.

In your zone is a natural combination of human chemistry, business synergy, and technical fit between you and the customer. This is your “sweet spot.” Heavy Hitters (Truly Great Salespeople) know their sweet spot inside and out. One might say, for example, “My sweet spot is packaged-goods companies with $250 to $400 million in annual revenues where the key decision maker is a gregarious fifty-five-year-old former factory worker who rose through the ranks and is now on a mission to increase plant efficiency.” The more specifically, you can describe your zone, the better off you are.

Your competitor has a sweet spot as well, and it may be quite close to or far away from your zone. Continuing the example from above, the competitor’s zone might be billion-dollar-revenue packaged-goods companies where the key decision maker is an introverted forty-five-year-old who has an extensive financial background.

So, what is your zone? Where are you strong and where are you weak? Equally important, ask these same two questions about your competitor before you decide to work on an account.

Minimize mistakes when working on a deal in your zone. Apply your strengths against the competition’s weakness in open accounts. Stay out of deals in the competitor’s zone. Salespeople who willingly compete on the enemy’s terrain are only fooling themselves. Sales managers who mandate that salespeople go after accounts deep in the competition’s zone are just plain foolish.

I’m very excited to tell you about the fifth volume of the “Heavy Hitter” series of books for senior salespeople. I’ll be sharing more information in future posts. The book will be available this fall and click here to preorder a copy from Amazon.

All salespeople must must be generals who create a strategy to win their wars long before the first battle begins. The successful military leader painstakingly plans how and where he will attack in accordance with the troops and weapons at his disposal. When the fighting starts, the victorious commander achieves his objective through battlefield maneuvers to gain the advantage and countertactics to neutralize his enemy’s advance.

If you are in sales, you are perpetually in a state of war. All salespeople are warriors who must fight the relentless march of time and enemies who are trying to defeat them daily. Sales is an intense hand-to-hand battle fought between two people or two groups of people who are each trying to win over the customer. The victor outsmarts, outmaneuvers, and overwhelms his enemies.

In sales, just as in war, there can be only one winner, and today’s conqueror can quickly become tomorrow’s vanquished. The deciding difference is strategy. Strategy is the most critical component of sales success. Without the right sales strategy, all of your hard work and sales acumen are inconsequential.

I first met Jill Konrath in South Africa three years ago while were speaking at the same sales conference (that’s our picture on the sign along with Nick Read). She’s smart, talented, and we hit it off famously. She’s written some of the best-known books on sales and her body of work speaks itself. Her new book is titled “Agile Selling” and click here to order your copy from Amazon.

Agile Selling: Get Up to Speed Quickly in Today's Ever-Changing Sales World

“Being an agile seller in today’s business environment virtually guarantees a prosperous career. You can ramp up quickly in new positions, becoming competent in record time. You can jumpstart sales of new products or services. You can instantly adjust to new market dynamics. In short, agility becomes your competitive edge.”

When salespeople are promoted, switch jobs, or face new business conditions, they need to learn lots of new information and skills quickly. It’s a daunting task, compounded by the fact that they’re under intense pressure to deliver immediate results.

What sales guru Jill Konrath calls agile selling is the ability to quickly learn all this new info and then leverage it for maximum impact. Having an agile mind-set, one that keeps you going through challenging times, is the crucial starting point. You also need a rapid-learning plan that helps you establish situational credibility with your targeted or existing customers in just thirty days.

In Agile Selling, you’ll discover numerous strategies to help you:

• Pinpoint “must know now” information and skills • Home in on the business case for making a change • Ferret out the most effective sales approaches • Find fresh solutions to problems you’re facing • Maximize your productivity

The result? You’ll become an overnight sales expert, slashing your path to proficiency. Today’s savvy, well-educated prospects expect you to be a knowledgeable resource from the first minute of your relationship. If you’re not, they’re unforgiving.

That’s why getting off to a fast start is so important. In changing times, your short-term success determines your long-term success. Yet few companies have implemented a sales onboarding plan to ensure that this happens. Most sellers are on their own to learn by osmosis, shadow an experienced rep, or go through a few days of training. Those strategies simply don’t work anymore!

I’m very excited to tell you about the fifth volume of the “Heavy Hitter” series of books for senior salespeople. I’ll be sharing more information in future posts and you'll find a summary below. The book will be available this fall and click here to preorder a copy from Amazon.

Influence the Hidden Organizational Politics That Impact Decision Making

Heavy Hitter I.T. Sales Strategy is a comprehensive guide for penetrating new accounts, differentiating your solution during the sales cycle, and closing large deals. It is based on extensive research and interviews with more than 1,000 key information technology decision makers, top technology salespeople, and vice presidents of sales. The book provides state of the art technology sales strategies and advanced tactics for senior salespeople who want to learn the secrets of top performers.

Readers will find advice on how to win over C-level I.T. executives and senior business leaders across the organization. Discover how I.T. organizational structure impacts company decision making. Determine how to gain strategic account control based upon the people, process, and politics of selling to complex businesses. Learn to conduct persuasive sales calls using sales linguistics, the study of how the customer's mind uses and interprets language, and much more.

What prevents a sales organization from achieving success? After studying hundreds of sales organizations I have found the answer to this question is directly related to the challenges associated with their development stage.

Every sales organization can be classified based upon whether it is in a “Build,” “Compete,” “Maintain,” “Extend,” or “Cull” stage. The Build stage is when the sales organization is first establishing itself. If successful, it will proceed to a high-growth Compete stage and then to Maintain stage that is contingent upon stable, predictable success. As the sales organization ages, it will either Extend its prior success and enjoy longevity or suffer decline and be forced into the Cull stage where it must reduce its size.

Obviously, the top sales challenge always is exceeding the monthly, quarterly, or yearly revenue target. However, the sales challenges that inhibit a company from achieving revenue growth vary based on the sales organization stage. This is due to the “push” versus “pull’ market characteristics of each stage. For example, in the Build stage a small group of salespeople must push themselves into new accounts and introduce their solution and its benefits. Conversely, a well-known company in the Maintain stage is pulled into new sales opportuni­ties because of its market position. The different sales organization challenges in the Build, Compete, Maintain, Extend and Cull stages are reviewed below.

Build Stage Challenges

The top sales challenge in the Build stage is creating sufficient sales coverage to push the product into the market. It takes time to hire, train, and build a critical mass of capable salespeople who can penetrate new accounts. It is during this stage that the sales model is first established, whether the sales organization will sell directly via outside field salespeople, over the phone with inside salespeople, or through channel partners.

“We are continually learning from every sales cycle and adapting our message to be more effective when we are in front of cus­tomers. We are trying to create a repeatable sales process but our product focus is changing as much as our sales model.” Vice President of Sales, Build Stage Company

Compete Stage Challenges

The Compete stage challenge revolves around quickly scaling the sales organization so that it can compete effectively against more established competitors in existing markets or grab as much market share as possible in new greenfield markets. In this stage the sales organization begins to develop its collective intuition of where it can win new business and where it is likely to lose. If these attributes are not instilled into the new sales­people, “organization-thrashing” occurs. The newer salespeople will chase business they cannot win and precious pre-sales resources will be wast­ed. They won’t make quota and are likely to either be let go or leave on their own merit because they lack a sufficient pipeline of business to make commission. In this situation, there is organization-thrashing because of the continual replenishment of new and under-performing salespeople.

“My biggest challenges relate to scale and growth. We’ve been hiring so many people so quickly that we are challenged to recruit the right people, get them up to speed quickly, and retain them. If we don’t get them up to speed quickly, we will likely not retain them.” Vice President of Sales, Compete Stage Company

Maintain Stage Challenges

The sales challenge changes radically during the late Compete stage and into the Maintain stage. The focus shifts from scaling the organiza­tion to maximizing sales productivity by lowering the cost of sale and increasing the average sales price. This may result in moving business from outside sales to inside sales or less expensive partner and distributor channels. Another challenge revolves around the predictability of revenue and the size of the sales organization. Since the sales organization is fully staffed and the territory coverage model is complete, the challenge is where to find the additional revenue to meet the growing annual target. Since territories have been split numerous times, the answer revolves around specialization. The sales force is segmented by size of company to be called upon, national accounts are segregated, and industry vertical sales specialists covering finance, government, retail, distribution, healthcare, etc., are created.

“I have to balance capacity with productivity. What this means is how do we get more leverage from the sales model? When you start a company, it is about going as fast as you can to separate yourself from the pack. Now we have to take the next step as a company and say, “What are the sales per employee? What’s the cost per rep? What commissionable costs are we paying? All of these things become relevant. The only way you can have an impact on those is to increase productivity and lower cost.” Vice President of Sales, Maintain Stage Company

Cull Stage Challenges

In the Cull stage the company has been leapfrogged by competitors who provide superior offerings. How does a demoralized and marginal­ized sales force revitalize itself? The Darwinian answer is to cull the herd and remove the bottom performers and those with disenfranchised attitudes. The attitude of entitlement must be eliminated for the spark of the competitive spirit to be reignited. Equally important, key ex­isting accounts whose run rate revenue is central to the survival of the company are separated out and placed in “Revenue Care” programs where they receive dedicated account management, customer support, and executive level access.

“The other shift we are making is getting some of our more experienced and seasoned salespeople who really know the industry and solutions well, to be a little bit more provocative in their approaches. We want them to add more value to the sales cycle. We have a successful older sales team that is kind of set in its ways. The business and times dictate that we shake this model up.” Vice President of Sales, Cull Stage Company

The challenges sales organizations face is dependent upon the stage of their development. In this regard, the vice president of sales is one of the most important people within a company because this person is in charge of creating and executing the sales strategy that ensures success.

Sales is both an art and a science. It is the skillful combination of emotion and logic, people and process, free-thinking and organization. I recently conducted an extensive research project involving more than one-hundred vice presidents of sales at top technology companies (software, Cloud, computer hardware, and telecommunications) to better understand the art and science of managing a sales organization today.

While the study results provided detailed insights about sales organization trends, it also yielded a wide range of statistics that reflect the strategies sales leaders are employing to overcome their top challenges. Below, you will find twelve of these key sales metrics that benchmark sales organization performance, structure, and effectiveness.

1. Percent of Organization Achieving Quota The overall average for percentage of salespeople that achieved one hundred percent of quota last year was sixty percent. However, the number of salespeople who achieved one hundred percent of quota varied greatly by sales organization. Twenty-six percent of sales leaders reported that seventy percent or more of their salespeople made quota. Fifty-four percent of sales leaders reported that between fifty to six¬ty-nine percent of their salespeople made quota. Twenty percent of sales leaders report that less than half of their salespeople made quota.

2. Quota Attainment AverageThe average percentage of salespeople that achieved one hundred percent of annual quota last year varied by type of industry:

3. Average Annual Quota for Field SalespersonThe overall average annual quota for an outside field salesperson was $2.7 million. Quota for computer hardware salespeople was the highest at $4.2 million. Telecommunications salespeople averaged $3.3 million and software was $3.2 million. Cloud/SaaS salespeople had the lowest quota at $1.6 million.

4. Average Annual Quota for Inside SalespersonThe overall average annual quota for an inside field salesperson was $985,000. Annual quota for computer hardware inside salespeople was $1.35 million, for computer software it was $1.22 million, for Cloud/SaaS inside salespeople the average was $795,000 and telecommunications was $730,000.

5. Average Annual On Target Earnings The average annual on target earnings including salary, commission, and bonuses for field and inside salespeople at one hundred percent of quota are shown by industry below.

6. Average New Deal Size The average new deal size reported for field sales was $166,000 and new deal size for inside sales was $19,000.

7. Sales Cycle Length Seventy percent reported an average sales cycle length of sixty days or less for inside sales while fifty-four percent reported an average sales cycle length of ninety days or more for outside sales. Twenty-four percent of inside sales cycles and twenty-three percent of outside sales cycles were between sixty-one and ninety days in length.

8. Vertical Sales Adoption Sixty-four percent of study participants have vertical sales specialists on their sales force (calling on verticals such as public sector, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, etc.). Seventeen percent are planning to add vertical sales specialists in the future while nineteen percent do not have any plans to do so.

9. SMB Specialization Sixty-three percent responded that they have specialized inside salespeople that are dedicated to SMB (small to medium business) or mid-market sales. Twenty percent of these inside sales representatives are allowed to make field sales calls when necessary.

10. Field Sales Revenue Trends Trends for 2013 and 2015 projected annual revenue attributed to field sales as opposed to inside sales varied by industry. The overall trend is for the number of companies that derive more than ninety percent of their revenues from field-related sales to decrease dramatically. For example, twenty-eight percent of software companies will derive more than ninety-percent of their revenues from field sales in 2013 and this number is expected to decrease to zero in 2015. The number of computer hardware, Cloud/SaaS and telecommunications companies with more than ninety percent of their revenues from field sales in 2013 is also projected to drop by half in 2015.

11. Inside Sales Roles Sixty-two percent of participants reported their outside field salespeople are assigned an inside salesperson. Seventy percent of inside salespeople carry a quota and fifty-five percent indicated that the revenue generated by the inside salesperson is applied to outside salesperson’s quota. Forty percent of inside salespeople schedule meetings for the outside salesperson. Seventy percent of inside salespeople perform lead generation and telemarketing activities.

12. Sales Preparedness Eighty-three percent of participants thought their outside field sales teams were equipped with the sales strategies, tools, and skills to exceed their numbers, compared to fifty-seven percent for inside sales and forty percent for channel sales.

Over the past several decades the structure of sales organizations have remained largely the same. They have been primarily based on outside field salespeople who make face-to-face sales calls with prospective customers and current clients. In turn, the field salespeople would be supported by inside sales representatives who helped them complete their daily tasks.

Today, the traditional sales organization structure is undergoing a significant change. Many sales organizations are transitioning from a field sales model to an inside sales model, where the inside salespeople work independently from the field and are directly responsible for closing business. In order to understand the magnitude of this trend, in-depth interviews and extensive surveys were conducted with over one-hundred vice presidents of sales at leading high technology companies and business services providers. The resulting researchprovided detailed insights about the evolution of sales organizations along with the following key finding:

Over the past two years, forty-six percent of study participants reported a shift from a field sales model to an inside sales model. Twenty-one percent reported a shift from inside sales to a field sales model. More than twice as many study participants reported moving to an inside sales model.

There are three key factors that determine when a sales organization will utilize a field or inside sales model. They are the sales organization’s stage of development, the complexity of the products that are sold, and to a lesser extent, the sales leader’s perception of inside and outside sales model effectiveness.

Sales Organization Development Stage

Every sales organization can be classified into a "Build," "Compete," "Maintain," “Extend,” or "Cull" stage based upon its development. The Build stage is when the sales organization is first establishing itself. If successful, it will proceed to a high-growth Compete stage and then to Maintain stage that is contingent upon predictable success. As the sales organization ages, it will enter either the Extend stage and enjoy longevity or the Cull stage, where it declines and is forced to reduce its size. The ratio of outside or inside salespeople changes as the organization moves from the Build to Compete to Maintain development stages.

The challenges sales organizations face is dependent upon the stage of their development. The top sales challenge in the Build stage is creating sufficient sales coverage to push the product into the market. The Compete stage challenge revolves around quickly scaling the sales organization so it can compete effectively against larger established competitors. The focus shifts to maximizing sales productivity by lowering the cost of sale and increasing the average sales price in the Maintain stage. The Extend stage challenge is to attain widespread customer adoption so their solution becomes the de facto standard. The Cull stage challenge is to revitalize a demoralized and marginalized sales force. These challenges directly influence the sales organization’s structure and whether a field or inside sales model will be deployed.

Sales Cycle Complexity

The complexity of the sales cycle determines the evolution of the sales organization and at what point outside field or inside-based sales models will be implemented. Sales cycle types can be classified by complexity as Enterprise, Platform Cloud-based or Point-specific. Each of these sales cycles vary in complexity depending upon the number of individuals and departments involved in the selection process, the size of purchase, and sophisticated nature of the solution offered.

Enterprise sales typically are large capital expenditure purchases that involve long sales cycles. Multiple departments of a company and all levels of the organization (C-level executive, mid-level management, and lower-level personnel) are needed to approve the solution’s functionality and its purchase. A point-specific sales cycle is usually targeted to solve the business problems of single department within an organization and the purchase decision is made by a small number of decision-makers usually at the lower-level of the organization. The Platform Cloud-based sale provides a turnkey business solution for the customer over the internet and is sold directly to the business users of an organization. There is a preferential field and inside sales model strategy for each of the sales cycle types. For example, a field sales model is preferred for enterprise sales cycles and an inside sales model is preferred for Platform Cloud-based sales cycles.

Sales Leaders Perception of Field and Inside Sales Models

While the goal of this study was to gather quantifiable metrics based on surveys and interviews with sales leaders, there is another aspect of sales model decision making that cannot be ignored. Ninety-eight percent of study participants responded that the characteristics between inside and outside salespeople are significantly or somewhat different.

Most sales leaders believe that outside salespeople have superior sales skills and the most accomplished sales professionals are in the field as evidenced by the sales leader comments below. This in turn can influence their decision and whether they implement a field or inside sales model.

“Field Sales is more strategic, meeting with C-level executives and developing strategic business innovation to help them grow their business versus inside which is more quantity and not as in depth majority of the time.”

“Inside Sales is a transactional engagement and the focus is on opening opportunities. Outside teams are solution and relationship based.”

Furthermore, many sales leaders have a personal bias toward deploying outside salespeople over inside sales. In some cases, this inclination was based on their own experience from many years ago when they were in field sales. However, this historical disposition is being offset by the changing nature of how customers buy today. Customers are smarter and information is not only easier to find, but available in greater detail than ever before. In addition, technology has become a way of life and completely disrupted the buying process. Via the Internet, customers can research products, prices, and opinions.

This situation is driving more sales leaders to consider and then deploy an inside sales model. For example, study participants were asked to rank the influential factors that are responsible for the migration from field to inside sales. Sixty percent responded that it was due to the increasing pressure on business performance and profitability. Fifty-four percent said it was due to technology advancements. Forty-seven percent felt that buyers more readily accept the remote selling process and thirty-four percent believed it is because of societal changes such as a mobile workforce and personal online purchasing habits.

Study participants also cited the following advantages of an inside sales model compared to field sales model. Eighty-four percent believe it is easier to onboard new salespeople and share best practices. Seventy-nine percent responded that inside sales allows the organization to scale faster. Increased call activity and selling volume was cited by seventy-eight percent of responders. Seventy-six percent acknowledge that inside sales provides a better strategy to penetrate small businesses and mid-markets.

Today, there is a changing perception among sales leaders about the strategic role inside sales performs. This change is due to the benefits that sales leaders believe the inside model provides in terms of scaling activity, growing the organization, and attacking specific markets.